life:
Happy birthday, Ella Fitzgerald.
Today we celebrate with photos of the one and only Queen of Jazz and other musical icons.
(Eliot Elisofon—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
Happy 96th birthday Ella Fitzgerald! | April 25, 1917 - June 15, 1996
“I know I’m no glamour girl, and it’s not easy for me to get up in front of a crowd of people. It used to bother me a lot, but now I’ve got it figured out that God gave me this talent to use, so I just stand there and sing.”
Arriving as a teenager in the thirties, she remained the only vocalist to star in the Swing Era, make the leap to bebop’s wild embrace, and then, in the fifties, secure a new position as the ultimate medium for the American popular song. Her near three-octave range combined with her flawless technique and instinctive musicianship to make her a wonderful interpreter— able to perfectly run down a lead sheet— and at the same time one of the signal improvising musicians in recorded history. And who can name a more consistently satisfying singer? Sarah Vaughan’s velvety swoops might elicit more swoons; Betty Carter’s audacious excursions might better command unbridled awe. But with her rhythmic authority, her commonsense reading of lyrics, her unexpected musical quotes, and her essential girlishness, no singer ever made listeners happier than Fitzgerald did.
![“When he [Frank] embarked on his big-selling but artistically wanting Duets projects in the 1990s, his first question was “How is Ella doing?” She wasn’t doing well enough to be coaxed into the studio, so the two greatest interpreters of American song never did record together.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz1liuig971ql6i08o1_500.jpg)
“When he [Frank] embarked on his big-selling but artistically wanting Duets projects in the 1990s, his first question was “How is Ella doing?” She wasn’t doing well enough to be coaxed into the studio, so the two greatest interpreters of American song never did record together.”
